Books

The Hundred Foot Journey BY RICHARD C. MORAIS, ALLEN & UNWIN, $27.99. If you enjoy a novel about food, you’re sure to love this tale of restaurant rivalry set in provincial France. When the Haji family arrives in the village of Lumiere – with the dust of Mumbai still on their clothes and intoxicating Indian […]

In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will be printed in the March issue of The Weekly and the writer will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95. FROM BLOOD BY EDWARD WRIGHT, ORION, $32.99.. Is it the […]

Looking out over the gorgeous harbour on a perfect Sydney day, UK singer James Blunt can’t help but confess his love for Australia. “I love it here. I think it’s the most amazing place,” he says. “You can tell anyone who lives here is a lucky person.” The singer, who calls the sun-kissed island of […]

MY LAST DUCHESS BY DAISY GOODWIN, HEADLINE REVIEW, $29.99. This stylish historical novel, set at the turn of the 19th century, gives us beautiful clothes and lavish jewels … a British duke in need of a rich wife … and a lively American heiress with a mother ambitious for her to “marry well”. And so […]

FREEDOM BY JONATHAN FRANZEN, FOURTH ESTATE, $32.99. The hype and the weight of expectation might well have sunk a lesser book, but Franzen delivers with a better, wiser, more dazzling novel even than the one which made his name, The Corrections. He takes one picture-perfect, liberal, Mid-western family – college sweethearts Patty and Walter Berglund […]

THE SMALL HAND: A GHOST STORY BY SUSAN HILL, ALLEN & UNWIN, $24.99. From the mistress of the modern ghost story comes this small and perfectly formed tale that, even weeks after reading, I cannot get out of my head. It haunts me, as a good ghost story should. Our questionable hero is antiquarian bookseller […]

THE WEEKEND BY BERNHARD SCHLINK, WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, $29.99. Bernhard Schlink writes so elegantly, with such calm simplicity – remember The Reader? – that he can pull you into the darkest and most difficult subjects before you realise where he’s taking you. In this case, it’s the weekend reunion of a group of one-time members […]

MARY ANN IN AUTUMN BY ARMISTEAD MAUPIN, RANDOM HOUSE, $32.95. San Francisco was captured in fading sunset by novelist Armistead Maupin three decades ago, when, pitching an idea for a daily serial to the San Francisco Chronicle featuring the tales of secretary Mary Ann Singleton and her best friend, gay gardener Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, he […]

DEAD MAN’S CHEST BY KERRY GREENWOOD, ALLEN & UNWIN, $22.99. Hot-blooded private detective Phryne Fisher and her bathing dress – “no back and hardly any front” – head to Queenscliff for a holiday. Along for the ride are her adopted daughters, bookish Jane and culinary Ruth, devoted maid Dot and hound Molly, who all take […]

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT BY JUDY HORACEK, SCRIBE, $29.95. It’s impossible not to giggle at Judy Horacek’s smart yet dreamily inventive cartoons and illustrations, seen here in their technicolour glory in this seventh collection of Judy’s published sketches. The Australian artist’s observations on the absurdities of modern life and witty takes on environmental […]